Classical philosophy and Darwinian biology are far more compatible than is usually assumed. In fact, looking at either from the standpoint of the other can enrich and deepen our appreciation of both. From a Darwinian point of view, the theories of Plato and Aristotle deserve to be taken very seriously. From the classical point of view, Darwinian biology is much less reductionist than its enemies suppose.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Virtue is Subversive

In Chapter 4 of Intelligent
Virtue, Intelligent
Virtue, Julia Annas considers
another challenge to virtue ethics: that “thinking in terms of the virtues will
be essentially conservative”. Since
different political and social communities will have their own conceptions of
virtue, someone who attempts to develop the virtues will simply be following a
template laid down by his or her own community.

This will be so even if, as
Annas frequently says, developing in virtue means more than doing what your
teachers and role models do or say you should do.Our family and friends and distinguished
citizens may not live up to their own standards of virtue.Someone who takes those standards seriously
might well rock the boat by insisting that one ought to live up to those
standards.Yet in doing so, she might be
accepting without reflection the moral principles that are specific to her
tribe.If that is all virtue amounts to,
then it is indeed “essentially conservative”.

Again, Annas skillfully employs
her skills analogy.When someone
develops a skill (playing tennis or the piano) he is guided by the standards of
that practice.He then joins a community
that is distinct from that of his tribe and likely larger than the tribe.He may find that his commitment to this
larger community comes at the expense of his commitment to his family and
tribe.

Likewise, when someone develops
in virtue, she may find that she has more in common with and more admiration
for the community of virtuous persons than she does with the folks at
home.She will recognize honesty in
foreigners and will want to be more like such persons than like the models
commonly accepted in her native circle.She may come to realize that deeply held beliefs about honesty that are
common currency in her tribe (perhaps, that one need not worry about cheating
folks from north of the river) are in fact not honest at all.Thus virtue ethics are not conservative at
all, but potentially subversive.

The skill analogy works because
such practices as tennis and piano playing, while dependent upon seemingly
arbitrary rules, are in fact about discovering rules that are not arbitrary at all.Tennis works because it is built upon the
architecture of the human body and mind, just like piano playing.Anyone with the basic aptitude can learn the
one or the other, regardless of where and how they were raised.That is why such activities can be practiced
in very different cultural settings.

The same is true for
virtue.Honesty is not something that is
culturally defined but something that is discovered by people in distinct
cultures.Someone desiring to practice
it will recognize anyone else doing the same as a companion, even if he speaks
a foreign tongue and is dressed oddly.

Annas thinks that this is one
reason that excellence in virtue is rare.One’s own community is visible, tangible, and present.The community of virtuous persons is
scattered and intangible.It is hard to
break the bounds of the former in order to join the latter.

Developing in virtue may make
one a better citizen, depending on the moral condition of one’s civitas;
however, it also makes one a potential challenge to the comfort of one’s fellow
citizens.